Chapter 18

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"My dear man, please believe me, I have no pleasure at all in being inside your do you call this a house? I simply called at the school and was told the Headmaster was here." Lucius said as he looked around the house.

"And what exactly did you want with me, Lucius?"

"Dreadful thing, Dumbledore, but the governors feel it's time for you to step aside. This is an Order of Suspension. You'll find all twelve signatures on it. I'm afraid we feel you're losing your touch. What with all these attacks, there'll be no Muggle- borns left at Hogwarts. And we all know what an awful loss that would be." Malfoy handed Fudge an official roll of parchment.

"Now, see here, Lucius. Dumbledore suspended. No, no last thing we want right now If Dumbledore can't stop these attacks I mean to say, who can?" Fudge explained to Lucius.

"That remains to be seen, but as all twelve governors have voted --" Lucius told Fudge as Fudge read the parchment.

"An' how many did yeh have ter threaten before they agreed!" Hagrid yelled and Olivia felt tears weld up in her eyes. Harry tucked her into his side.

"I would advise you not to shout at the Azkaban guards like that." Lucius smirked at Hagrid.

"Yeh can take Dumbledore! Take him away an' the Muggle-borns won' stand a chance! There'll be killin's next!" Hagrid shouted and Olivia covered her ears.

"Calm yourself, Hagrid! If the governors want my removal, Lucius, I shall of course step aside. However you will find that I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me. You will also find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." Dumbledore's eyes drifted unmistakably to Harry.

"Admirable sentiments. We shall all miss your highly individual way of running things, Albus, and only hope your successor will manage to prevent any more, um, killin's." Lucius told the ones in the room.

Malfoy strides to the door and bowed as Dumbledore walked out. Fudge, fiddled with his bowler and waited for Hagrid. Instead, Hagrid stood his ground, taking a deep breath and says carefully.

"If anyone wanted ter find out some stuff, all they'd have ter do is follow the spiders. That'd lead 'em right! Tha's all I'm sayin'." Fudge stared at Hagrid in amazement, then followed him out. As the door slammed shut, fang started to howl and scratched at the closed door.

Harry, Olivia, and Ron emerged from the cloak. "Hagrid's right. With Dumbledore gone, there'll be an attack a day." Olivia told the two boys as she rubbed her eyes.

"Look..." At the windowsill, a trail of spiders escaped through a crack in the glass. Harry grabbed Hagrid's lantern. "C'mon."

Harry illuminated the trail of spiders. They ran from the window to the ground, to the dark trees in the near distance.

As Harry moved to follow, Ron hesitated. "What are you doing?" Ron asked as they followed the spiders.

"You heard Hagrid. Follow the spiders." Harry told him.

"They're heading into the Dark Forest." Harry sighed and headed off with Olivia at his side. Terrified, Ron grabbed Fang and followed. "Why spiders. Why couldn't it be 'Follow the butterflies'?"

Fang crashed through low-slung branches and sharp brambles as Harry followed. Ron gingerly picked his way, they jumped as Fang howled.

Branches snapped. A rumbling noise sounded, then silence. Harry spied something and pointed. "There's something moving over there something big." Just then a blaze of light splinters the trees, blinding them.

They start to flee when Ron stopped. "Harry!... Harry, it's our car!" Scratched and mud-smeared, with bits of earth and grass sprouting from its headlamps and hubcaps the Ford Anglia looked half-animal. Ron circled it in wonder. "It's been here all the time! Look at it. The Forest has turned it wild." Harry nodded, then glanced back up the slope.

"C'mon, we don't want to lose the trail." Olivia reminded them and they nodded. Harry, Olivia, and Ron enter a hollow ribboned with shadows.

Enormous trees towered over them, strewn with strands of white webbing. Ron stepped on a strand, kicked it off queasily.

Harry peered up ahead at the far end of the hollow, the spiders streamed toward a dark opening.

As Olivia, Harry, and Ron approached the opening, a clicking sound emanated from within, echoing in the branches of the tall trees.

Growing louder. Ron faltered, glancing about nervously. "I don't have a good feeling about this, Harry --"

"Don't panic." The siblings say at the same time.  As Harry stepped to the mouth of the cavern, the air suddenly crackled with movement.

As twigs snapped as huge shadow emerged, slowly engulfing Harry and Olivia; they peered up.

An ancient spider, the size of a small elephant. As it advanced, Harry, Olivia and Ron backed up slowly. Then its blind eyes caught the light, and it stopped. As if listening.

"You do not come from the forest. Your hearts beat like... men." The huge spider said and Olivia gasped.

"Yes. We're friends of Hagrid's. And you, you're Aragog, aren't you?" Hearing this, Aragog's head turned slightly.

"Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before."

"He's in trouble. Up at school, there've been attacks. They think it's Hagrid. They think he's opened the Chamber of Secrets. Like before." As Harry talked, Ron and Olivia's eyes darted warily about, then a pair of long legs curled slowly around the trunk of the tree to his left.

Terrified, Ron and Olivia nudged Harry, but Harry ignored them. "That's a lie! Hagrid never opened the Chamber of Secrets!"

"But if Hagrid never... that means... you're not the monster." Harry muttered not paying attention.

Olivia grabbed Ron's hand. "The monster was born in the castle. I came from a distant land, in the pocket of a traveler." Ron turned. Two crawling silhouettes inched forward. Paused. Waiting. Watching.

"Harry..."

"Shhh!" He yelled at the two before going back to Aragog. "But if you're not the monster, what did kill that girl fifty years ago?" Harry asked the monster.

"We do not speak of it! It is an ancient creature we spiders fear above all others."

"But have you seen it?" Hardy asked and Olivia shrinks away.

A scrambling sound echoed above Ron and Olivia. The two glanced up a spider crouched on a branch above.

"I never saw any part of the castle but the cupboard in which Hagrid kept me. The girl was discovered in a bathroom. When I was accused, Hagrid brought me here." More scrambling was heard so Olivia looked up.

Spiders in high and low branches dropped downward like paratroopers. Ron grabbed Harry.

"What!" Harry yelled and Ron pointed. Harry looks and paled. Turning slowly back to Aragog. "Well... thank you. We'll just go."

"

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